THE IMPLICATIONS OF INHERITED COLONIAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN WIREDU’S CONCEPTUAL DECOLONIZATION IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

One of the tripods of Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization in African philosophy is the liberation of the minds of the African people from western imposed ideas and system through the process of colonialism in the continent. These clearly have several implications in educational thoughts, ideas, and practices. To effectively achieve, implement and practicalize the Wiredu’s template demands and requires a radical transformation and reformation of the entire educational system and framework as presently found in Africa. It calls for an educational framework anchored on a philosophical foundation that will recognize the diversity, admit the reality of the African experience and systematically confront and dismantle the potency of the western hegemonous structures and system of universalization of knowledge. In this paper therefore, effort will be made to critically assess the effects and implications of the inherited colonial educational system towards the effective implementation of Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization on African Philosophy. We will evaluate how the present system of education in Africa, which has its taproot from western colonial system, can be deconstructed to develop an educational system and structures that will drive the conceptual decolonization process. Also, we will make conscious effort to discover the positive and negative impacts if any on the African value system. The method of analysis will be employed in this work. At the end, we will show and conclude that conceptual decolonization as postulated by Wiredu may not be a viable tool that can aid the development of African philosophy especially in 21st century educational system in Africa.